Homelessness Essays - Homelessness, , Term Papers

Homelessness The Stewart McKinney Act of 1987 defines a homeless person as Aone who lacks a fixed permanent nighttime residence, or whose nighttime residence is a temporary shelter, welfare hotel or any public or private place not designated as sleeping accommodations for human [emailprotected] (583). Included in the homeless population are people who stay with friends or family for a short period of time and then decide to find shelter on the streets because of conflict with the people whom they are staying with, or because of personal pride. In the early 1980=s homelessness was determined to be a major problem in the United States. These years saw a steep rise in the number of homeless, due to poor economy and diminishing financial help for housing and income. The homeless consist of all types, races, and ages of people. A large portion of the homeless population consists of men but the number of women and children living on the streets is on the rise. Current statistics show that women and children now make up around forty percent of the homeless population. According to John J. Macionis one-third of homeless people abuse drugs and one-fourth are mentally ill. The current homeless population is mostly non-white and has an average age of the middle thirties. Veterans make up about one-third of the total number of homeless men. The homeless all suffer from absolute poverty. As stated in 1995 by the United States government, 36 million people or 13.8% of the population was poor. The government defines a family of four as being poor if they generate a yearly income of $15,569 or less, although the average improvised family=s income was only around $10,000 in 1995. The Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics states, the average annual income of the homeless in Chicago was $1198 in 1996 (584). APerhaps we should not be surprised that one percent of our population, for one reason or another is unable to cope with our complex and highly competitive [emailprotected] (Macionis 183) According to the Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics homelessness in America has several causes. One such cause is the competitiveness of the business market. Companies are no longer as loyal to their employees as they used to be. Many corporations now use overseas laborers. Also, a diminishing amount of low-skill jobs, due to industrialization has increased the chances of low-skilled workers finding employment. The Chicago coalition for the homeless states that a person must be employed full time and earn more than $8.29 per hour in order to exceed the federal poverty level for a family of four. According to the 1997 census report 2.3 million people worked full time but were still below the poverty line (5). Another reason for the increased number of homeless is the lack of affordable housing, especially in urban areas. The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless reports that, nationally, 10.5 million low income renters compete for 6.1 million rental units that are within their price range, leaving 4.4 million without affordable housing (3). Many low-income areas are being bought out by wealthy entrepreneurs who remodel and restore them and restore them and sell them for a large profit. The mainstreaming of institutionalized mental patients is another reason for homelessness. According to Microsoft Encarta nationally 20-25% of the homeless population suffers from some sort of major mental illness (2). These people are less likely to be able to obtain support such as treatment, case management and the help that is necessary to find and maintain permanent housing. The most recent cause of homelessness in the United States is the Afeminization of [emailprotected] Because of the high expense of child care and the increasing numbers of single mothers, the number of homeless women and children is on the rise. According to Stacey Chambers the rise in the number of homeless women is partially due to domestic violence. In an interview of homeless mothers ninety-two percent had been assaulted at one time in their lives. More than half had suffered from bouts of major depression inther lives whereas only twenty percent of the United States female population had suffered from similar depression (2). Despite these facts and statistics, little else is known about these people. Most sociological surveys are conducted by phone or

The Angel of Death essays

The Angel of Death essays The medical professions of Germany, including academic medicine, played a critical role in the evolution of Nazisms programs of human destruction, programs that were based in genocide and the exploitation of the dead. The atrocities associated with the Holocaust are staggering, especially when the words Auschwitz and Mengele are mentioned. Dr. Josef Mengele was a man that was twisted by Nazi ideology and notions of Aryan supremacy into a madman who was responsible for so many deaths at Auschwitz. Through his responsibilities as a selector at the arrival gates and a human experimenter in his laboratory behind the scenes, Mengele brutalized and slaughtered thousands of men, women and children. Once he had acquired a sense of power and control from being stationed at Auschwitz, Josef Mengele grew insane with this power and became an actual angel of death, victimizing the feeble and weak at the arrival gates and performing unethical human experiments on so many young subjects. In October of 1930, Josef Mengele enrolled at Munich University and began studying philosophy and medicine. # At about the same time, the City of Munich was going though ideological revolution due to the rising popularity and power of the Nazi party. Professor Rudolf Hess proclaimed at a mass meeting that National Socialism is nothing but applied biology.# This speech was very inspirational to Josef Mengele because he viewed himself as a Nazi revolutionary and a biological revolutionary.# As Mengele became more involved with National Socialism, he acquired his doctorate from Munich and moved to Frankfurt to study under Dr. Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, who ultimately set the foundation for the racial research performed by Mengele at Auschwitz. The main emphasis of his research in Frankfurt was the importance of heredity within the context of Nazi race science.# ...

Torism, rituals and food Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Torism, rituals and food - Essay Example Tourism is mostly positively related to rituals. Wherever there is a ritual, there are likely to be tourists. This is because rituals give tourists exactly what they are looking for – a deep cultural experience.. Nevertheless, not all travel has such profound meaning. If the travel and the on-site experience is largely activity orientated, it could be the case that there is no chance for Arnold van Gennep’s sacred ‘away-ness’ of those who travel from home. The typical package holiday could be an excellent example of a trip with limited, or no overt symbolic meaning (Burns, 1999). Food is life†, says Robert Poor (2001). This adage came to life when I visited Delhi, a colorful city in the middle of an even colorful country, India. In this essay, I will talk about the ritual of Eid-ul-Adha, a ritual celebrated by Muslims for its religious values. The central, most remarkable attraction of Bari Eid (or the Big Eid) is food. The central, most remarkable pu rpose of it is to give away, share and sacrifice. Therefore, to see how Muslims sacrifice animals and give them away is what attracts tourism in Islamic countries at that time of the year. Ritual. What is a ritual? David Floyd defines it as a patterned, repetitive, and symbolic enactment of a cultural belief or value; its primary purpose is transformation (Grimes, 2002). Why do people perform these repetitive, almost ceremonial acts? People perform them because tradition prescribes it. ... Philosophy without religion becomes meaningless. Religion without rituals becomes insipid. The rituals of a religion, like the husk of a seed, preserve its life and make it germinate. It is only when the rituals are separated from the faith and assumes an independent existence that they become mechanical and lifeless. (Understanding Hinduism) Eid-ul-Adha Muslims celebrate two Eids annually; Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha. The first one follows the month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast. The second one marks the end of the Pilgrimage to Mecca and is celebrated in the month of Zilhajj, an Islamic month that follows the lunar calendar. On this Eid, an animal in sacrificed in the honor of Abraham's sacrifice of his son. The essential significance of this festival is the spirit of sacrifice (qurbani) in memory of Abraham's great act of faith many centuries ago. (Gilchrist, 2001) The day starts off with a prayer that is scheduled for early morning. The men go to mosques while the women stay home and thank their Lord for all he has given along with the ability to sacrifice. After the prayer, the process of Qurbani or sacrifice starts. People buy domestic animals such as sheep, goats, cows and even camels a few days before the big day. They feed them and take care of them. On Eid, they sacrifice them. This process continues throughout the day and night for some people but for me, the goat was set to be halaaled just before 10:00 am.After the sacrifice, the meat is distributed amongst friends and the needy. People cook this meat in a variety of ways and invite friends and family over to share the occasion. By afternoon, I tasted the first bite of my sacrificed meat. The menu had a variety of scrumptious delicacies. I noticed that the meat was